(September 11, 2006)—A sweeping landmark Baylor University study of 21st Century religion released Monday concludes “The relationship between religion and opinions about the war on terror are powerful and universal.”

The study finds that churchgoers are much more likely to support the Patriot Act and believe that Saddam Hussein was behind the 9/11 attacks; that 60.3 percent of Evangelical Protestants approve of the war in Iraq, followed by 46.7 percent of Catholics; that “beliefs about God are strongly related to views on the war on terror and the trust of (President) Bush’s leadership,” and that whites are nearly four times more likely to believe the war in is justified than African Americans.

The Baylor Religion Survey, the university said Monday “is the most extensive and sensitive study of religion ever amassed.”

Click Here For BU Press Release On Study Findings

Detailed 400-question surveys were completed by more than 1,700 people as Baylor researchers attempted to break new ground in understanding the role of religion in the US.

"We wanted to do something that most surveys don't and that is to probe questions that are typically not asked on surveys," said Dr. Byron Johnson, professor of sociology and co-director of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion.

"So for example, most surveys might ask how often you pray. We want to know whom do you pray to, what was the last thing you prayed about, and why do you pray."

"We know that a lot of Americans believe in God, but we want to know what you think God's personality is like and how engaged God is in the world."

The Gallup organization administered the survey last fall and Baylor researchers started analyzing the data this spring.

Click Here For Study Results

The results show that despite the popular belief the country is becoming more secularized, just 10.8 percent of the US population, or about 10 million Americans, have no religious affiliation, less than the 14.3 percent reported in the General Social Survey in 2004.

"We believe, and are going to argue, that it [the statistics] has more to do with how you ask about the religious connection than what it says about the commitment of the average American to their faith," said Dr. Kevin Dougherty, assistant professor of sociology and one of the Baylor Survey researchers.

Among other early findings, a third of Americans are Evangelical Protestants, and nearly 63 percent of Americans who aren’t affiliated with a religious tradition believe in God or a higher power.

The results, which were released Monday during a news conference in Washington, D.C., represent only the first in a series of waves of data as additional surveys are conducted every other year, Baylor said.

Click Here For Baylor University Web Site

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